Solitude

“The most regretful people on Earth are those who felt the call to creative work…and gave it neither power nor time.” Mary Oliver Here in Laguna, there is just no excuse for not answering the felt call. Opportunities abound. Just one of many is the Autumn Art program currently going on right here in town. The Sawdust Art Festival began Spring Into Art workshops and classes at the instigation of then board member glassblower John Barber and his wife, Rebecca, in 2000.

CHASING DOWN THE MUSE A black-winged raven calls me to waking from my dream-filled sleep. He and a partner glide through the grassy-sloped canyon searching for their first meals. Stephen snores softly in harmony with other campers. I slip out of the tent and down the canyon trail. Cool fog fills the spaces between the ridges and eucalyptus leaves drip with evening dew. Small wrens flitter in the scrub shrubbery and the telltale signs of wild pig are everywhere.

CHERRIL DOTY Spring has come to the window of my heart. In all the fatness of life itself, the season has arrived on the scene. Along with whale spouts and frolicking dolphins, fresh new buds and trees leafing out, spring also brought with it glass blower John Barber's "baby," the Sawdust Festival's fifth annual Spring Into Art. In the words of the wonderful poet and writer Mary Oliver in her essay "Of Power and...

To hike down to Wood and Aliso canyons is a pleasant adventure into a treasured wilderness, an opportunity to visit plants that live in the wild. Alan and I were blessed with a glorious blue sky and the anticipation of sycamores swaying in the gentle breeze. We immediately encountered the blazing yellowish orange of the sticky monkey flower, Diplacus aurantiacus. This wildflower brightens both the natural and home landscape during the spring and summer. Nestled nearby, within a field of grasses was a gorgeous stand of mariposa, Calochortus splendens.

The City Council meeting had left me sleepless and less than satisfied. I imagined where I wanted to be and found myself putting on my hiking boots. Catharine grabbed the sunscreen and water. Soon, we found ourselves hiking on the Old Corral Trail, in the Aliso and Wood Canyon Wilderness Park. This hike was a pleasant adventure into a treasured wilderness: 4,000 acres, two year-round streams, and an opportunity to visit plants in the wild. We were blessed with a cool day and a gentle breeze.

THE GARDEN FANATIC "Hiking for its own sake, for the sheer animal pleasure of good condition and brisk exercise, is ... an easy thing ... to comprehend." -- STATE OF UTAH BULLETIN "In wildness is the preservation of the world." -- HENRY DAVID THOREAU Mother's Day brunch had left me feeling full and less than sassy. I imagined where I wanted to be and found myself putting on my hiking boots. Meanwhile, Catharine grabbed the sunscreen and water bottles.

THE GARDEN FANATIC "Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature ...." -- LEONARDO DA VINCI "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, it is no more distant than in the canyon." -- with apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson To hike through James Dilley Preserve is a pleasant adventure into a treasured wilderness ... the center of 15,000 acres that compose the Laguna Greenbelt.

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me, those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." — Henry James One of the residual pleasures of being a lifelong gardener is meeting fellow gardeners in and about Laguna. From the checkout lines at Ralph's mini-mart (has anyone been fooled to think the aisles are wider by the smaller shopping carts?) to a stool at the Mar Bar, rather than recounting tales of travel to Paris or critiquing Cindy Frazier's performance in "Damn Yankees," conversations invariably move toward the ethics of dealing with a view blocking tree or exchanging lies on the quantity and quality of tomatoes harvested.

“The most regretful people on Earth are those who felt the call to creative work…and gave it neither power nor time.” Mary Oliver Here in Laguna, there is just no excuse for not answering the felt call. Opportunities abound. Just one of many is the Autumn Art program currently going on right here in town. The Sawdust Art Festival began Spring Into Art workshops and classes at the instigation of then board member glassblower John Barber and his wife, Rebecca, in 2000.

CHASING DOWN THE MUSE A black-winged raven calls me to waking from my dream-filled sleep. He and a partner glide through the grassy-sloped canyon searching for their first meals. Stephen snores softly in harmony with other campers. I slip out of the tent and down the canyon trail. Cool fog fills the spaces between the ridges and eucalyptus leaves drip with evening dew. Small wrens flitter in the scrub shrubbery and the telltale signs of wild pig are everywhere.